Hot Tip: Hiring Salespeople

Want to hire good salespeople? During the interview, ask the job candidate to try to sell you your own product--orsomething like it. Steve Oehlerking, founder and president of Tampa-based Apartment Hunters, a $2 millionrental-locator service, asks potential sales hires to "pitch" him their current homes. "If they can't tell me all about aplace where they've lived for a while," Oehlerking reasons, "how will they be able to talk to customers about placeswhere they don't live?"